Sermon Series

Questions Unbelievers Ask

Our 2014 vision is called "Sticky People". We want to be people who “stick with” and do not give up on our unbelieving friends. To get us started we are going to engage together in a series about questions unbelievers ask.

There are many legitimate questions that true seekers will ask and we must be biblically prepared to answer them. Our purpose is not to win an argument but to win the person to Christ. Paul makes this clear in II Cor. 10:5 when he teaches us that our goal should be to “destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God.”

Join us as we single out a few of the most asked questions we hear from our unbelieving friends. Invite a friend to the services and learn together how to answer these critical questions.

Let Go of Your Banana

LET GO OF YOUR BANANA: “Learning Biblical Stewardship in Tough Times”

In India there are a lot of monkeys. When the locals want to catch one, they anchor a small jar to the ground—a jar with a neck just the size of a spider monkey’s hand. Next they put a small banana in the jar and wait. Inevitably, a monkey shows up and reaches in to grasp the banana. But rather than release the banana to free itself, the monkey will sit there, trapped by its own reluctance to let go of that treasured banana.

Aren’t we a lot like that? We grasp and clutch and worry and suffer to hold onto and attain “the banana” and never discover our hands are in the jar and we are trapped. We really don’t own “the banana…” it owns us!

Together during stewardship month at MBC we are going to find that "letting go of our bananas" is a way of finding new freedom to serve Christ! We will examine 4 snapshots of people in Scripture that learned to “let go of their bananas” in tough times. The impact of their experience and the lessons from their decision will help all of us be better stewards over all the things God has so graciously given us. I am asking God to change our perspectives on all that we own so that God may get great glory out of the resources He has lent to us. Come along for the ride and learn how to “let go of your banana…even in tough times!”

What You Don't Know Can Hurt You!

In this series on the book of Exodus called “What you don’t know can hurt you” we will learn of people who refuse to know God and the consequences of that refusal. They include not only Israel but the Egyptian people and their leader Pharaoh.

The theme of the book of Exodus is the mission of making God known, recognizing His glory and experiencing His redemptive work. God’s aim is for His people to make Him known throughout the world and the one God who alone can redeem sinners. God saved one small group of miserably oppressed people from tyranny. He chose them for Himself, He confronted them, and He revealed himself to them as the one true God. He showed them who and what He was. He showed them what they were like and sent them on their way to the mission He had called them to.

It was Phil Ryken who put it best in his observation of this great OT book: "The great problem at the beginning of the book is the Israelites’ inability to go out and glorify God because Pharaoh wants to keep their service all to himself; hence God’s explicitly stated reason for rescuing the Israelites: My great glory will be displayed through Pharaoh and his troops, his chariots and his charioteers."

We invite you to join us for this thrilling journey that will help us become the "sticky people" we were intended to be all along.

Eyes on Jesus' Birth

The birth of a baby is observed through many different pairs of eyes. There are the parents… what an unforgettable moment… beautiful & perfect. Then, of course there are the grandparents who view that baby as raw material to lovingly spoil. Then there are neighbors and friends who dote, coo, congratulate and smile. Of course the government also eyes that baby. It swoops in, assigns a SS number and looks at your little one as a potential tax-payer & donor to the coffers of the treasury. So many eyes on that baby.

The coming of Jesus as a baby also had many different pairs of eyes on Him. In our study together we can never appreciate the way God sent Jesus into our world as our substitute for sin until we view His first coming through many different eyes.

Our series entitled: “EYES ON JESUS’ BIRTH” will look at the birth of Jesus through several pairs of eyes.